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KWAIDAN: Stories and Studies of Strange Things (Lafcadio Hearn) online
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JIKININKI
Muso said nothing more on the subject; for it was evident that his kind hosts supposed him to have been deluded by some goblin. But after having bidden them farewell, and obtained all necessary information as to his road, he determined to look again for the hermitage on the hill, and so to ascertain whether he had really been deceived. He found the anjitsu without any difficulty; and, this time, its aged occupant invited him to enter. When he had done so, the hermit humbly bowed down before him, exclaiming:-- "Ah! I am ashamed ! -- I amvery much ashamed! -- I am exceedingly ashamed!"
"You need not be ashamed for having refused me shelter," said Muso. "you directed me to the village yonder, where I was very kindly treated; and I thank you for that favor.
"I can give no man shelter," the recluse made answer; -- and it is not for the refusal that I am ashamed. I am ashamed only that you should have seen me in my real shape,-- for it was I who devoured the corpse and the offerings last night before your eyes... Know, reverend Sir, that I am a jikininki, [1] -- an eater of human flesh. Have pity upon me, and suffer me to confess the secret fault by which I became reduced to this condition.
"A long, long time ago, I was a priest in this desolate region. There was no other priest for many leagues around. So, in that time, the bodies of the mountain-folk who died used to be brought here,-- sometimes from great distances,-- in order that I might repeat over them the holy service. But I repeated the service and performed the rites only as a matter of business; -- I thought only of the food and the clothes that my sacred profession enabled me to gain. And because of this selfish impiety I was reborn, immediately after my death, into the state of a jikininki. Since then I have been obliged to feed upon the corpses of the people who die in this district: every one of them I must devour in the way that you saw last night... Now, reverend Sir, let me beseech you to perform a Segaki-service [2] for me: help me by your prayers, I entreat you, so that I may be soon able to escape from this horrible state of existence"...
No sooner had the hermit uttered this petition than he disappeared; and the hermitage also disappeared at the same instant. And Muso Kokushi found himself kneeling alone in the high grass, beside an ancient and moss-grown tomb of the form called go-rin-ishi, [3] which seemed to be the tomb of a priest.